(*wipes tear from eye* / Photo courtesy of facebook.com/bigdaddyfightteam)

Well, this is it, folks — Gary Goodridge‘s last column for CagePotato. Big Daddy decided to blast through a bunch of questions lightning-round style, so if he still didn’t get to your question, 1) Learn to write better questions, and 2) Stay tuned for the start of Dan Severn‘s mailbag column on CagePotato, coming soon. Thanks so much to Gary for doing this for us; follow him on Facebook and Twitter, and visit bigdaddyfightteam.com.

‘danomite’ asks: Have you ever known anybody to work a fight or take a dive? You don’t have to name names, just wondering how much it happened, especially in Japan.
Yes that type of stuff happened all the time in Pride. There are some pretty famous examples that the old fans all talk about. Chances are if you think it’s shady, it might have been. Naoya Ogawa’s camp offered me money to throw the fight but I didn’t want to sacrifice my integrity for a buck.

‘ReX13′ asks: I always wondered what Gary’s first thought was after he killed Paul Herrera. Well, after the adrenaline damped down a bit.
I was shocked like everybody. Since I practiced my counter-move the night before I was ready, but surprised it worked that easily. I didn’t have too much time to celebrate though since I had another fight coming right up.

(Oli Thompson, back when he used to lift heavy shit for a living. Photo via powershotsmag.com)

UFC 138‘s main event might be a little underwhelming, but there will be more than enough local talent to keep the Birmingham, England crowd engaged. In addition to well-known names like Paul Taylor, John Hathaway, Brad Pickett, and Terry Etim, there will be at least four U.K. fighters making their UFC debuts at the November 5th event. Here’s a quick rundown, with some videos after the jump…

Philip De Fries and Oli Thompson: The two heavyweight fight-finishers will be facing off against each other. De Fries is an undefeated BJJ specialist from Sunderland whose seven victories have all come by way of submission, with six in the first-round. Earlier this month, the 25-year-old choked out Stav Economou at an Ultimate Warrior Challenge event in Essex. Thompson is a former strongman competitor who won first place in the 2006 Britain’s Strongest Man tournament, and qualified for the 2008 World’s Strongest Man championships. As an MMA fighter, his 9-2 record includes five submissions and three KO/TKOs. He is the reigning heavyweight champion of the London-based Ultimate Challenge MMA promotion.

(Props: YouTube.com/StocktonHeybuddy)

The wild opening and the dramatic finish. For a full rundown of last night’s Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson, check out our liveblog.

(Props: NightmareofBattle via MiddleEasy)

Following his release from the UFC, Denis Kang has kept a somewhat lower profile, competing for promotions like W-1 in Canada and Impact FC in Australia. But a return to the big leagues is even less likely now that he’s dropped two straight. In May, Kang suffered a first-round submission loss at the hands of Jesse Taylor — not a good look for a formerly top-ranked fighter who once went 23 consecutive fights without a loss — and last Sunday he was flattened by local talent Seung Bae Whi in a slugfest at Road FC 3 in Seoul, South Korea.

Here’s the video of round 2 of that fight. Things really start to heat up around the 2:30 mark, and Kang is face-down taking knees to the head on the mat by the 3:00 mark. Good to know that at least in South Korea, PRIDE neva die. Are we seeing the end of the line for the Super Korean?

(Papy wears that hat in memory of his late grappling coach, Fred Sanford.)

With three unanimous decision losses in his last four fights, former welterweight title contender Thiago Alves is going to need to start rackin’ up the old W’s if he wants to stay relevant (and keep his job) in the UFC. His next bout will give him the opportunity to rebound like a boss or crash and burn. MMAWeekly reported yesterday that Alves will face recent UFC signee Papy “Makambo” Abedi at UFC 138, November 5th in Birmingham, England.

A Congolese fighter who now fights out of his adopted home of Sweden, Abedi has racked up an 8-0 record (5 TKOs, 2 subs) competing throughout Europe, most recently scoring a first-round submission against Nathan Schouteren at a Superior Challenge event last October. The 32-year-old holds a black-belt in judo, and trains at the HILTI NHB camp in Stockholm. Though Abedi has spent the majority of his career at middleweight, he’s decided to drop to 170 for his UFC debut. Check out some vids of Papy in action after the jump, and let us know how you think he’ll fare against Alves…

(Fight starts at the 5:45 mark.)

Cruising through a bad Wikipedia Hole this morning, I realized that I’d never seen the full video of Wanderlei Silva‘s first victory in the UFC, a knockout of Tony Petarra. This went down at UFC 20 on May 7th, 1999, about seven months after Silva’s steamrolling at the hands of Vitor Belfort, and a year before his unsuccessful light-heavyweight title bout against Tito Ortiz (which would be Wandy’s last Octagon appearance for seven years).

Petarra was a 32-year-old submission fighter from Rancho Cucamonga who was making his UFC debut that night, and was in way over his head. Petarra clinches immediately, looking to take the fight to the mat. Silva stays on his feet and starts firing knees, first to the body, and then right into the rookie’s grill. Wanderlei snatches the full plum at the fight’s 2:45 mark, and the fight is over seconds later.

Later in the video, Mike Goldberg has a sit-down with Ortiz, who gives it up to Silva’s performance and calls out Frank Shamrock. Also, Bruce Buffer looks so young in the fight introduction that he could pass for Shia LaBeouf‘s older brother. Ah, memories!

(Props: Valmirfernando28 via MMAMania)

Maiquel Falcao‘s brief UFC career began with a controversial, much-criticized fight against Gerald Harris last November, and ended with his subsequent release due to an old assault charge. But on Saturday, “Big Rig” returned to doing what he does best — beating the crap out of Brazilian opponents who you’ve never heard of.

Falcao (27-3, 1 no-contest) met journeyman Julio Cesar Bilik (10-7) in the main event of a Centurion Mixed Martial Arts show in Itajai, Santa Catarina, Brazil, and went home with the 22nd knockout victory of his career. Watch as Falcao drops Bilik with a stiff jab, then smashes him with strikes from the top until the referee puts a stop to the action.

After the fight, Falcao said…something. I don’t speak Portuguese, so I’m absolutely no help to you in that department. Anybody care to translate?

M-1 Challenge 26 was in Costa Mesa, California and on Showtime last night, but we forgot to mention it yesterday so you probably didn’t watch. That’s our bad; allow us to make it up to you. The promotion known chiefly for being the only negative thing most people can say about Fedor Ememlianenko has a roster full of names that are virtually unknown in the western hemisphere, but damn if they don’t produce some exciting fights.

The first video is a quick fight featuring Russian middleweight Arthur Guseinov versus American Team Quest product Tyson Jeffries. Things start out well for Jeffries; he easily takes the first ninety seconds of the fight. After that, Guseinov gets in touch with his inner Shlemenko for a second, AND IT’S AAAALLLLLL OVER!!1!!!!1!!one1!

Come on in past the jump and we’ll run down the rest of the broadcast; we’ve lined up the videos just like you like them.  Thanks to MrSfc16 for doing all the capture work.

Can we just call it even now?  We love you, Nation.

Even you, Sodak.

(Props: jcdvproductions via oxvaletudo)

This little gem comes to us from an X Series event in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 25th, where bantamweights Dre Milley and Jamie Norton made their pro debuts against each other. After a hard-fought first round — scroll back to 3:46 to see the fight from the beginning, or to 5:36 to see Milley toss Norton on his head in athletic, explosive fashion — Norton opened up the second frame throwing punches to set up a perfectly-timed face-kick. This Milley kid has potential, but for now, he joins Rashad Evans and epically knocked out Asian dude in the ranks of Worst Coma Faces in MMA History. Better luck next time.

(Props: ESPN via MMAMania)

Greatest comeback knockout in UFC history? Last night‘s main event clash between Cheick Kongo and Pat Barry is certainly up there with previous shockers like Scott Smith vs. Pete Sell and Mike Russow vs. Todd Duffee, considering how close it came to being stopped. Kongo earned himself a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for his efforts. The other performance bonuses went to Joe Lauzon, who picked up the Submission of the Night award for his first-round kimura over Curt Warburton, and Nik Lentz and Charles Oliveria, who were awarded the Fight of the Night despite the fact that an illegal knee from Oliveira near the end of the match may result in the fight being declared a no-contest.

After the jump: An excerpt from the night’s other epic battle — Rampage vs. Ariel.

(The good old days — when men were men and briefs were shiny.)

Hello to all of my Cage Potato friends and thanks again for your interest and questions. It’s been a busy 2011 so far and things are only looking better from here. Thank you for the wonderful night before UFC 129 in Toronto. To those who missed it, there was a Cage Potato: Banned party that week and I had the opportunity to meet many loyal readers and Cage Potato “Big Wigs.” As you may know, I’ve reached a different stage in my career and I hope to provide you with more honest insights into many of the things that I’ve learned. I’m pleased to be black by popular demand. Ask away for my next column. Also, add me on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog www.bigdaddyfightteam.com.

All the best and Happy Humping,
Gary Goodridge

‘Bob Villa’ asks: How do you feel about all the lay and pray we’ve been subjected to lately? What do you think about guys like GSP who seem to fight not to lose and never go for the finish?
You’re asking the wrong guy because I always went for the finish. I think just lying on top of somebody is just crap and ridiculous. However, when fighters start doing that they pay the price because the promotions are not going to bring you back. You already know I like Wanderlei Silva and Chris Leben; I also like a lot of the U.K. fighters like Dan Hardy because they always provide entertaining fights.

GSP is a different animal though. He is a champion. He doesn’t have to finish these guys. They have to finish GSP. His job is to keep his belt any way that he can because the belt means prestige and, more importantly, money. If I were him I would use every fibre in my body to walk away with the belt. I never won a championship beyond the International Vale Tudo Championship so I was never in a position to have to try and retain my belt. I was the guy who tried to shatter the myths of others fighters as champions.

People need to understand that guys like GSP are facing the top competition in the world every fight. There is no room for a mistake. It may not look like he’s doing much but trust me, he is.

‘bgoldstein’ asks: At PRIDE 11, you gave Yoshiaki Yatsu one of the most savage beatings I’ve ever seen in my life. Why did PRIDE book a rematch of that fight the next year? Did you feel bad accepting it?

(Barnett has his throat-slash. Roy Nelson has his belly-rub. Lorenz Larkin just stands there and poops in his diaper. Props: Strikeforce)

Tomorrow night, Strikeforce returns to the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington for one of the most compelling ‘Challengers’ events in recent memory. “Fodor vs. Terry” kicks off on Showtime at 11 p.m. ET, and features a pack of exciting prospects. Here’s a quick rundown of the five-fight main card, plus videos of some of their recent performances…

Caros Fodor (10-3) vs. James Terry (10-2)
Fodor is a Washington native who trains under Matt Hume at AMC Pankration. Eight of his ten victories have come by way of submission, but he was able to score his first stoppage-via-strikes in his last fight, battering a worn-out David Douglas until he earned a standing TKO in the third frame. He’s a perfect 3-0 in the Strikeforce organization, and will be looking to move another rung up the lightweight ladder against Cung Le protege James Terry, who has won his last three fights, two by first-round knockout.

(Caros Fodor’s TKO of David Douglas, 4/1/11)

(James Terry’s KO of Josh Thornburg, 4/1/11)

(Props: SuperiorCageCombat)

Two Saturdays ago at Superior Cage Combat 1 in Las Vegas, lightweight UFC veteran Justin Buchholz became the third person since February to score a front-kick knockout in an MMA fight, which came in the closing minute of his headlining bout against Steve Lopez. In a bizarre and tragic coincidence, Lopez happens to be a member of the Xtreme Couture camp, just like Randy Couture and Vitor Belfort, who previously fell victim to the suddenly-hip technique in the UFC. Damn, those guys have to be spooked right now.

2011: Year of the Front Kick. Don’t try to fight it.

(Props: YouTube.com/BellatorMMA)

The last event of Bellator’s fourth season went down last night in Lake Charles, Louisiana, featuring the finals of the light-heavyweight and featherweight tournaments. Christian M’Pumbu earned his way to the LHW finals by knocking out Chris Davis and Tim Carpenter, and it was business as usual against co-finalist Richard Hale. M’Pumbu dropped Hale once in the first round, but was unable to finish him with a D’arce choke. The Congolese-French standout didn’t make the same mistake twice; after scoring another knockdown in the third, M’Pumbu threw down leather until the ref was forced to stop the fight, picking up a $100,000 check and the title of Bellator’s first-ever light-heavyweight champion.

In the featherweight final, Patricio Freire edged out Daniel Straus to a unanimous decision, earning a rematch with champion Joe Warren, who he lost a split decision to last June. Full Bellator 45 results are after the jump…

(Matt Lindland vs. Mamed Khalidov)

From today’s KSW event at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland. The night’s headliner between Mariusz Pudzianowski and James Thompson — which turned out to be a surprisingly entertaining back-and-forth brawl — is after the jump. (Damn, check out those shots Thompson survives at the 4:27 mark.) Go to IronForgesIron.com for the rest of the videos from the event; full results are here.

(Props: BellatorMMA)

Unfortunately, ReX was unable to provide us with one of his famous Bellator reports this week, so you’ll have to settle for this quick-n-dirty recap of Bellator 44, which went down Saturday night in Atlantic City. First, we’ll direct you to the video above: Hector Lombard earned his 18th-straight victory (!) in a non-title bout against Falaniko Vitale, crushing Niko to the mat with a right hook in the third frame after a surprisingly dull first two rounds. Lombard’s latest performance follows such previous classics as “Six Second Prison Rape” and “A Corpse Named ‘Whisper’.”

Headlining the card, Xtreme Couture’s Michael Chandler scored an upset decision win over the highly-touted Patricky Freire in the Season Four Lightweight Tournament final, outworking the Pitbull in all three rounds; Chandler was docked a point in the third for groin-kicks. The victory netted him a $100,00 check and a future shot at Eddie Alvarez’s belt. In non-tournament action, Alexander Shlemenko spun circles around Brett Cooper, picking up his own UD victory, while Giedrius Karavackas battled back from an early ass-kicking to submit Sam Oropeza by scarf-hold armlock. Full results and video of the Karavackas/Oropeza stoppage are after the jump.

Huge MMA Knockout – Watch more Sports

I’m gonna be honest — I have no idea who these people are or when this fight took place. But you can tell it’s an educated audience by the way they openly laugh at that jacked-up teep kick and standing hammer-fist at the 0:07 mark. After that, the dude just hangs out with his hands down, and the Neil Grove-lookalike kicks his head into last month. Concussions, man. Always entertaining.

(Leg kicks, why have you forsaken me? / Photo courtesy of allelbows.com)

Today, as you know, is Easter — a day in which Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, three days after his crucifixion. To commemorate the holiday, we’d like to take this time to remember notable resurrections in the sport of mixed martial arts. (Because we’re respectful like that.) There’s nothing more incredible than watching a dude get the living crap beaten out of him for minutes at a time, and then somehow, miraculously, finding the strength to knock his opponent dead before the last bell. So without further ado, here are 11 of our favorite “Back From the Dead” MMA fights of all time…

(Fedor Emelianenko: Huge fan of Johnny Cage.)

Before there was the UFC, there was Mortal Kombat. First released in arcades back in October ’92, the addictively gory video-game franchise sought to answer the eternal question: Who would win in a fight between a kung-fu expert and a paddy-hatted immortal who can shoot lightning out of his hands?

The most memorable of aspect of the MK series has always been the trademark “Fatalities” — which have gotten progressively more over-the-top in the last 19 years. Of course, the sport of mixed martial arts often gives us similar moments of decisive ultra-violence. So in honor of the ninth installment of the game, which hits stores tomorrow, we decided to count down our favorite finishing moves in MMA. They may not be as dramatic as a spine being ripped out of your opponent’s body, but in the real world, this is as nasty as it gets…

#10: The Elbow Storm

A barrage of elbows to the head of a helpless fighter will make even hardened fans of the sport wince in sympathy — even if we’ve been watching this scene play out dozens of times since 1994. But there’s no questioning the raw efficiency of a “hellbow” assault from the top, which has the power to turn cocky contenders into broken shells.

While most of us were busy watching Diaz vs. Daley last Saturday, Potato Nation Fight Team captain Jeff Watts (aka ‘Karmaatemycat‘) was actually fighting, in an amateur bout at King of the Cage: Outkasts, held at Lake of the Torches Casino in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. It’s impressive enough that our man Karma now has cage experience at a well-respected regional event like KOTC. The Shinya Aoki grappling pants and the 80-second submission victory? That’s just icing on the cake, homey.

As with his last fight, Karma proves himself to be an adept wrestler, needing all of six seconds to put his opponent on the mat. From there, it’s a methodical progression to full mount, and a textbook rear-naked choke when his opponent rolls to escape. The fight aftermath is just as entertaining. Watch as Jeff shouts out his team, apologizes to the judges (LOL!), gets hug-snubbed by his opponent (BOOOO!), gives love to “CagePotatoMMA!” then asks the audience “What the fuck is up?!” He even got the announcer to shout out our site. Epic victory, brother — we’re proud of you.

(Paul Daley vs. Scott Smith, 12/4/10)

With 81.5% of his victories coming by way of strikes, Paul Daley has reason to be confident in his chances against Nick Diaz this Saturday. Semtex has gone 4-0 since his notorious loss to Josh Koscheck at UFC 113, and is currently riding back-to-back first-round knockouts of Scott Smith and Yuya Shirai. Of course, Diaz deserves to be a 2-1 favorite, but Daley is always one punch away from producing another devastating knockout. Here are nine of his best moments. (All videos cued up near the good stuff.)

(Paul Daley vs. Junior Barata, 4/18/09)

(Props: pedrommabjj via Fightlinker)

If you have a morbid interest in seeing how James Irvin’s last fight against Mamed Khalidov went, well, here you go. I’m not going to throw around the word “work,” but check out how wide and telegraphed Irvin’s punches are, starting at the 0:21 mark — it’s the universal non-verbal sign for “please armbar me so I can collect my paycheck and head to the airport.” And that’s pretty much what happens. Happy now?

After the jump: The brutal finish of Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Georgi Karakhanyan from Saturday’s Bellator show, Junior Dos Santos pulls off a pretty damn respectable “Showtime Kick,” and the gif of Shogun tapping against Jon Jones at the end of their fight at UFC 128, in case you haven’t seen it yet.

(The problem with American MMA fans is that they don’t understand the tag-team ground game enough to appreciate it.)

BY MATTHEW “THE FIGHT NERD” KAPLOWITZ

We all have that one friend who still just doesn’t get MMA. You tell him how safe it is, he says he doesn’t believe it since you can punch a dude on the ground. You tell him there are rules in place to keep everyone healthy, he says he doesn’t believe it since you can punch a dude on the ground. See a trend developing? No matter what you say, this person just never understands. Part of it might be because of the numerous videos that highlight brutality or generally idiocy in the sport, and of course those are the videos that get traffic — not the ones that showcase good sportsmanship and quality fighting. I blame “America’s Funniest Home Videos” for this obsession with schadenfreude.

These are fights that your friend who hates MMA references to remind you of how horrible he thinks the sport is, and he could have a point with some of these when taken out of context. These fights make you ashamed to be an MMA fan; some for how strangely they turned out due to circumstances, and others for how damaging they were for the whole of the sport. Just a warning to you: This list might start off jovial, but it will take a sharp turn for the serious as we get closer to the bottom. So let’s dive into this cesspool that is teeming with the lowest common denominator and take a look at 10 MMA fights you wish you never saw, and more importantly, that you may wish never existed in the first place.

10. Kimbo Slice vs. Houston Alexander

The man billed as “The Youtube Sensation,” backyard-brawler-turned-MMA-fighter Kimbo Slice made a splash in EliteXC, until he was jabbed to death by Seth Petruzelli in the appropriate finale for that company. No one knew what would happen to Kimbo, and questioned if he would enter boxing, K-1, or return to MMA. We were soon given an answer when the Florida-native popped up on the tenth season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Now, we would really see if he was UFC material by working his way up against other fighters vying for the top spot.

And hey, turns out Kimbo was not UFC material as he was defeated in the first round of the tournament by Roy Nelson. Still, people swooned over Kimbo saying he was given the hardest fighter in the house. Inevitably, Kimbo was granted a second chance at the TUF 10 finale, getting a fight with equally disappointing Houston Alexander, who had built up a reputation for having great hands and little else. It made perfect sense to book these two together, in hopes that one would knock the other into a time when ProElite meant something other than floundering stock prices.

Instead of fireworks, the match fizzled out and dragged out to a dull decision, with Alexander doing little more than throwing some leg kicks and Kimbo being the one to push the fight. Alexander, who was brought in for this one fight after three losses in a row, was cut and Kimbo was cut one fight later after a beatdown courtesy of Matt Mitrione. The moral of the story here — sure, street fighting is fun to watch, but does that equate to being an MMA fighter? It could if they actually trained. Slice was an example of the hype machine gone overboard, and there is a reason why we have not seen a street fighter pushed like that since.

9. Tag Team MMA

(Skip to the 7-minute mark for the finish. Props: carloscub6)

Stepping in for the cancelled James Irvin vs. Houston Alexander co-main event, Tara LaRosa and Carina Damm put on a great show for the fans at Shark Fights 14 in Lubbock, Texas, on Friday, ending in a second-round submission win for the American. After an evenly pitched first round, LaRosa scored right away in the second frame, knocking Damm down with a jab. Damm immediately responded with a heel-hook attempt on the ground, but LaRosa grabbed a heel-hook of her own and was able to finish hers first. The loss was Damm’s third-straight, following a ten-fight win streak.

In the main event, Danillo Villefort dominated Matt Horwich for all three rounds with a varied striking attack and a handful of well-timed takedowns, earning a unanimous 30-27 nod from the judges. Full Shark Fights 14 results are after the jump.

(Props: ZPsBackUp)

Despite their now-routine struggles with making weight, Paul Daley and Ricco Rodriguez turned in impressive performances at BAMMA 5, Saturday night in Manchester, England. In the main event, Japanese welterweight Yuya Shirai was absolutely no match for Daley, as Semtex rocked him twice with jabs in the first frame before a flurry of power punches put Shirai down for good at the 1:46 mark.

Daley is now expected to face Nick Diaz at Strikeforce’s tentative April 9th event in California, although one rumor suggests that Daley’s participation is far from official and the British striker may be holding out for more money. Which makes sense, since he’ll probably have to forfeit about 20% of his purse to Diaz before the fight.

(Props: nigelboatmast via KickYoNuts on the UG)

Bros, you thought Lina Kvokov put in the saddest performance in women’s MMA history? Well, maybe you’re right. But this one is at least equally bad. In February 2007, notable ladykiller Tonya Evinger faced off against Brittany Pullen at the first Fatal Femmes Fighting event in Los Angeles. Even though Tonya only had a few amateur fights under her belt, her skills were in another league compared to Pullen’s, who had maybe — maybe — watched a cardio kickboxing class before stepping into the cage that night.

As Pullen swings her little arms and falls on the mat for no reason, you just know it’s not going to end well for her. And it doesn’t. Fifteen seconds into the fight, Evinger fires off a 1-2 that would make Wanderlei Silva proud, and Pullen is dead to the world. The commentators make references to bags of peat moss. Brittany never competed again, thank God.

(A Japanese whaling boat dumps out the day’s catch…)

By CagePotato contributor Matthew Kaplowitz

As Japanese MMA seems to slowly dwindle away from the glory days of the sport, hardcore fans like myself shed a tear for our great loss. It wasn’t just knowing those obscure 135-pounders whose names had syllables our gaijin tongues could barely pronounce, or the fact that it was the land where stomping and soccer-kicking a human being in the face was perfected into a sweet science. More than that, it was the stars that were produced that we came to know and love, whether they were fighting someone on their level or tearing open a tomato can — and that is where this list begins.

Blatant mismatches aside, JMMA gave us so many beautiful fights with men like Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko “Crocop” Filipovic (go tell your favorite TUF noob that his last name is not Crocop and relish in their confusion), Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Ikuhisa Minowa and Kazushi Sakuraba. For every epic bout that went into the history books for their unbelievable drama, we had other fights that we remember for less than pleasant reasons. Yes, the freak show fights! What would a JMMA event be without a match worthy of a 1930′s carnival? The big question here was how do I rank something that is mediocre to begin with? Well, I’m as clueless as you are, so let’s get started on this journey down “Freak Show Lane,” across the street from “What Were They Thinking? Boulevard”…

10. Daiju Takase vs. Emmanuel Yarbrough
Pride 3, 6/24/98

This was the first freak show fight in Pride history, and earns a place on this list for that merit alone. It pit 169 lb. Daiju Takase against 600 lb. Emmanuel Yarbrough, who most fans will recall was clobbered into submission by Keith Hackney and his broken hand at UFC 3 (Yarbrough has no luck in any event associated with the number three). The sumo plodded around the ring tossing his hamhock arms at Takase, while the smaller Japanese fighter fled and slowly wore down Yarbrough.

Takase makes the mistake of going for a lazy single leg on Yarbrough, which results in the large fighter flopping onto his belly and absorbing Takase into his flesh. As Stephen Quadros lamented, “This is horrible! This is like “Jaws!” Eventually, Takase slid out from the greasy underside of Manny, and in an ending eerily similiar to his UFC 3 fight, Takase went to town with clubbing hands to his exhausted opponent’s face, leading to a tapout in the middle of the second round.

Big, big congratulations to Potato Nation member Jeff “karmaatemycat” Watts, who increased his amateur MMA record to 2-1 on Saturday night, scoring a dominant decision victory over Rusty Dafoe at the LCO Cage Fights event in Hayward, Wisconsin. And as promised, he came out wearing his CagePotato Devil Horns t-shirt, like a boss. You did us proud, buddy. Video of the fight is after the jump, along with some play-by-play…

(Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Silva)

(Sergei Kharitonov vs. Andrei Arlovski)

(Valentijn Overeem vs. Tengiz Tedoradze @ Pancrase Fighting Championship 2, 4/17/10)

You’ll be seeing all these guys on tomorrow night’s Showtime broadcast of “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva” — and maybe subbing in for one of the main competitors later if they should fall victim to broken hands or licensing issues. So give ‘em a look and enjoy…

(Ray Sefo K-1 knockout highlight.)